Court fines bird flu case farmer

Geoffrey Buchanan was fined by Bury St Edmunds magistrates

A Suffolk farmer whose business was at the centre of a bird flu outbreak has been fined £4,000 for breaching regulations during the crisis.

Geoffrey Buchanan, 38, a director of Gressingham Foods, based in Debach, admitted eight offences relating to the storage and movement of carcasses.

Magistrates in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, sat late into the evening to sentence Buchanan.

He was also ordered to pay £3,510 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Suffolk County Council's trading standards department, which brought the prosecution, said the charges followed, but were not directly linked to, the outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease in Redgrave, Suffolk in November last year.

'Significant concerns'

After the case, Mike Collins, who investigated the case, said he was happy with the outcome.

"The legislation is there for a reason - to stop the spread of the disease," he said.

"During an avian influenza outbreak, when there are significant concerns about the about the disease and the implications for other farmers, breaking the rules is a very serious offence.

"During an outbreak, even greater care should have been taken and clearly it wasn't by Mr Buchanan."

Buchanan, in a statement read outside court, said: "We very much regret our involvement in this offence and accept the sentence imposed by the court."

He added: "We wish to make it abundantly clear that these offences are not linked with the avian influenza outbreak in 2007."

The bird flu virus was discovered at Redgrave Park Farm, which is owned by Gressingham Foods, near Diss, in November 2007, where thousands of birds were slaughtered.